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Dave McKean
Dave McKean at home studio 2010
Born	(1963-12-29) December 29, 1963 (age 48) Maidenhead, England, UK
Nationality	English
Area(s)	Illustrator, Photographer, Writer, Filmmaker, and Musician
Notable works	Hellblazer Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth The Sandman Cages Violent Cases The Savage Wolves in the Walls The Big Fat Duck Cookbook

David McKean (born 29 December 1963 in Maidenhead, Berkshire) is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician.

His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art and sculpture.

McKean's most recent projects are directing an original feature called Luna, and a book with the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

Career[link]

Comics[link]

After a trip to New York in 1986 during which he failed to find work as a comics artist, McKean met writer Neil Gaiman, and the pair collaborated on a short graphic novel of disturbing childhood memories, Violent Cases, published in 1987. This was followed in 1988 by a Black Orchid miniseries (again with Gaiman) and Hellblazer covers for DC Comics.^[1][2]

In 1989, he illustrated the Batman graphic novel, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, with writer Grant Morrison. His work during this period was often compared to that of Bill Sienkiewicz.^{[citation needed]}

From 1989–1996 McKean produced the covers for Gaiman's celebrated series The Sandman, all its collected editions, and many of its spin-offs. Further collaborations with Gaiman produced the graphic novels Signal to Noise in 1992 (previously serialized in The Face magazine), about a dying filmmaker and his hypothetical last film; and Mr. Punch, which explored similar themes as Violent Cases through the imagery of the Punch and Judy show.

In 1995 McKean wrote and illustrated a book for The Rolling Stones called Voodoo Lounge to tie-in with the release of their album of the same name.

Between 1990 and 1996 McKean wrote and drew the ten issues of Cages, an ambitious graphic novel about artists and creativity, illustrated in a stripped-down pen-and-ink style influenced by Alberto Breccia, José Antonio Muñoz and Lorenzo Mattotti.^{[citation needed]} Cages was published as single volume by Kitchen Sink Press in 1998, and in a new edition by NBM Publishing in 2002. In 2010, Cages was released by Dark Horse Comics in paperback for the first time.

Illustration[link]

In 2005, McKean designed the poster for the 32nd Telluride Film Festival. In 2006, he designed projections, sets and directed film clips for the Broadway musical Lestat, adapted from Anne Rice's novels, with music and lyrics by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

McKean has also created a few books documenting his travels using only illustrations. Examples include Postcards from Vienna, Postcards from Barcelona, Postcards from Paris (2008), and Postcards from Brussels (2009). He also wrote another book of 200 pages called Squink (éditions BdArtist(e)) that gathered a number of drawings in 15 chapters.

CD covers[link]

Book covers[link]

• Jonathan Carroll
• Iain Sinclair
• Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
• The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
• Coraline
• The Graveyard Book
• The New Yorker

Books of photography[link]

He has published four books of photography:

• A Small Book of Black and White Lies (1995)
• Option: Click (1998)
• The Particle Tarot: The Major Arcana
• The Particle Tarot: The Minor Arcana

Short comics[link]

Pictures that Tick (2001).

Work with John Cale[link]

McKean designed and illustrated John Cale's autobiography What's Welsh for Zen, a further biography called Sedition and Alchemy, a box set of cd's called Circus Live, and used John's Welsh-by-way-of-New York voice as the narrator for his short film N[eon].

Children's picture books[link]

McKean has collaborated with Neil Gaiman on two children's picture books, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (1998) and The Wolves in the Walls (2003), and illustrated Gaiman's children's novels Coraline (2002) and The Graveyard Book (2008), as well as S. F. Said's Varjak Paw (2003). The Wolves in the Walls: a Musical Pandemonium premiered as a play in Glasgow in 2006 with Improbable and the National Theatre of Scotland. He also illustrated David Almond's The Savage published in April 2008, and Slog's Dad published in September 2010. In 2011, McKean collaborated with Richard Dawkins on The Magic of Reality, a science book for children.^[3]

[edit] The Fat Duck Cookbook

In 2008, McKean collaborated with Heston Blumenthal on The Fat Duck Cookbook, an autobiography, compilation of key recipes and insight into Blumenthal's scientific method. The book was nominated in the James Beard Foundation Awards for Cooking from a Professional Point of View and won the Photography/Illustration award.

Stamps[link]

McKean created 6 images for Royal Mail's Mythical Creatures collection, which featured depictions of mythical creatures found in British folklore, including dragons, unicorns, giants, pixies, mermaids, and fairies. The collection was released in the UK on 16 June 2009. The Presentation Pack contains short descriptions of each subject by author Neil Gaiman.^[4]

Films[link]

MirrorMask, McKean's first feature film as director, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005. The screenplay was written by Neil Gaiman, from a story by Gaiman and McKean. A children's fantasy which combines live action and digital animation, MirrorMask was produced by Jim Henson Studios and stars Stephanie Leonidas, Jason Barry, Rob Brydon, and Gina McKee. Before MirrorMask, McKean directed a number of television intros and music videos as well as several short films, such as The Week Before (1998) and N[eon] (2002), which are included in the compilation DVD of McKean's work Keanoshow from Allen Spiegel Fine Arts. A second feature film, Luna, written and directed by McKean and once again starring Stephanie Leonidas, is due for release in 2011. McKean is also directed The Gospel of Us^[5], a film of the National Theatre Wales's Passion play in Port Talbot which stars Michael Sheen.^[6]

McKean was also a concept artist on the TV mini-series Neverwhere (1996), which was created and co-written by Neil Gaiman, and the feature films Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

Jazz musician[link]

McKean is also an accomplished jazz pianist, and founded the record label Feral Records with saxophonist Iain Ballamy.^{[citation needed]}

Awards[link]

McKean has won numerous awards and accolades. Over the years, he has been nominated 5 times for a World Fantasy Award in the category of "Artist", and in 1991 he won the award.^[7] His graphic novel Cages won the Alph-Art, Pantera, and Harvey Awards for best Graphic Novel.^[8] He has been nominated 6 times and won 3 Spectrum Awards in the categories of "Advertising", "Book", and "Comic".^[9] His collection of short comics, Pictures That Tick won the V&A Museum Illustrated Book Awards Overall First Prize.^[8] In 2004, McKean won a BSFA Award in "Short Fiction" along with Neil Gaiman for their work, The Wolves in the Walls. His film MirrorMask was nominated for the William Shatner Golden Groundhog Award for Best Underground Movie,^[10] the other nominated films were Green Street Hooligans, Nine Lives, Up for Grabs and Opie Gets Laid.^[11]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official site for children's books with Neil Gaiman (UK publisher)
• Official site for children's books with Neil Gaiman (US publisher)
• Neil Gaiman on Dave McKean
• Dave McKean at the Internet Movie Database
• Dave McKean presented at Lambiek's Comiclopedia
• Narcolepsy: a Dave McKean Retrospective
• Interview with Stripkap
• Interview with The Onion A.V. Club

Neil Gaiman
Gaiman and his dog, Cabal
Born	(1960-11-10) 10 November 1960 (age 51) Portchester, Hampshire, England
Occupation	Novelist, graphic novelist and screenwriter
Nationality	British
Period	1980s–present
Genres	Fantasy, Horror, Science fiction, Dark fantasy
Notable work(s)	The Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens
Spouse(s)	Amanda Palmer (2011–present) Mary McGrath (1985–2007)
Influences Douglas Adams, Alan Moore, Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny,[1] Jorge Luis Borges, Ray Bradbury, various fairy tales, G. K. Chesterton, James Branch Cabell, Lord Dunsany, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert A. Heinlein, Shirley Jackson, R. A. Lafferty, C. S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett, H. P. Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock, Clive Barker, Dave Sim, Thorne Smith, J. R. R. Tolkien, Peter S. Beagle, Gene Wolfe, Lewis Carroll,[2] Gilbert and Sullivan,[2] Tori Amos
Influenced Susanna Clarke, Ekaterina Sedia, Guillermo del Toro, Russell Payne, Dave McKean, Tori Amos
neilgaiman.com

Neil Richard Gaiman ( /ˈɡeɪmən/;^[3] born 10 November 1960^[4]) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, Newbery Medal, and Carnegie Medal in Literature. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work.^[5]

Early life[link]

Gaiman's family is of Polish and other Eastern European Jewish origins;^[6] his great-grandfather emigrated from Antwerp before 1914^[7] and his grandfather eventually settled in the Hampshire city of Portsmouth and established a chain of grocery stores.^[8] His father, David Bernard Gaiman,^[9] worked in the same chain of stores;^[8] his mother, Sheila Gaiman (née Goldman), was a pharmacist. He has two younger sisters, Claire and Lizzy.^[10] After living for a period in the nearby town of Portchester, Hampshire, where Neil was born in 1960, the Gaimans moved in 1965 to the West Sussex town of East Grinstead where his parents studied Dianetics at the Scientology centre in the town; one of Gaiman's sisters works for the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles. His other sister, Lizzy Calcioli, has said, "Most of our social activities were involved with Scientology or our Jewish family. It would get very confusing when people would ask my religion as a kid. I’d say, 'I’m a Jewish Scientologist.'" Gaiman says that he is not a Scientologist, and that like Judaism, Scientology is his family's religion.^[11]

Gaiman was able to read at the age of four. He said, "I was a reader. I loved reading. Reading things gave me pleasure. I was very good at most subjects in school, not because I had any particular aptitude in them, but because normally on the first day of school they'd hand out schoolbooks, and I'd read them--which would mean that I'd know what was coming up, because I'd read it."^[2] One work that made a particular impression on him was J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings from his school library, although it only had the first two books in the trilogy. He consistently took them out and read them. He would later win the school English prize and the school reading prize, enabling him to finally acquire the third book in the trilogy.^[2]

For his seventh birthday, Gaiman received C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series. He later recalled that "I admired his use of parenthetical statements to the reader, where he would just talk to you...I'd think, 'Oh, my gosh, that is so cool! I want to do that! When I become an author, I want to be able to do things in parentheses.' I liked the power of putting things in brackets."^[2] Another childhood favorite was Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which he called "a favourite forever. Alice was default reading to the point where I knew it by heart."^[2] He also enjoyed Batman comics as a child.^[2]

Gaiman was educated at several Church of England schools, includging Fonthill School in East Grinstead,^[12] Ardingly College (1970–74), and Whitgift School in Croydon (1974–77).^[13] His father's position as a public relations official of the Church of Scientology was the cause of the seven-year-old Gaiman being blocked from entering a boys' school, forcing him to remain at the school that he had previously been attending.^[11][14] He lived in East Grinstead for many years, from 1965–1980 and again from 1984–1987.^[12] He met his first wife, Mary McGrath, while she was studying Scientology and living in a house in East Grinstead that was owned by his father. The couple were married in 1985 after having their first child, Michael.^[11]

Journalism, early writings, and literary influences[link]

As a child and a teenager, Gaiman read the works of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, James Branch Cabell, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. Le Guin, Harlan Ellison, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Dunsany and G. K. Chesterton.^[2] He later became a fan of science fiction, reading the works of authors as diverse as Alan Moore,^[15] Samuel R. Delany, Roger Zelazny, Robert A. Heinlein, H. P. Lovecraft, Thorne Smith, and Gene Wolfe.^{[citation needed]}

In the early 1980s, Gaiman pursued journalism, conducting interviews and writing book reviews, as a means to learn about the world and to make connections that he hoped would later assist him in getting published.^[2] He wrote and reviewed extensively for the British Fantasy Society.^[16] His first professional short story publication was "Featherquest", a fantasy story, in Imagine Magazine in May 1984, when he was 24.^[17]

When waiting for a train at Victoria Station in 1984, Gaiman noticed a copy of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore, and carefully read it. Moore's fresh and vigorous approach to comics had such an impact on Gaiman that he would later write; "that was the final straw, what was left of my resistance crumbled. I proceeded to make regular and frequent visits to London's Forbidden Planet shop to buy comics".^[15]

In 1984, he wrote his first book, a biography of the band Duran Duran, as well as Ghastly Beyond Belief, a book of quotations, with Kim Newman.^[2] Even though Gaiman thought he did a terrible job, the book's first edition sold out very quickly. When he went to relinquish his rights to the book, he discovered the publisher had gone bankrupt.^[2][18] After this, he was offered a job by Penthouse. He refused the offer.^[2]

He also wrote interviews and articles for many British magazines, including Knave. As he was writing for different magazines, some of them competing, and "wrote too many articles", he sometimes went by a number of pseudonyms: Gerry Musgrave, Richard Grey, "along with a couple of house names".^[19] Gaiman ended his journalism career in 1987 because British newspapers can "make up anything they want and publish it as fact."^[20][21]

In the late 1980s, he wrote Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion in what he calls a "classic English humour" style.^{[citation needed]} Following on from that he wrote the opening of what would become his collaboration with Terry Pratchett on the comic novel Good Omens, about the impending apocalypse.^[22]

Comics and graphic novels[link]

After forming a friendship with comic book writer Alan Moore,^[15] Gaiman started writing comic books, picking up Marvelman after Moore finished his run on the series. Gaiman and artist Mark Buckingham collaborated on several issues of the series before its publisher, Eclipse Comics, collapsed, leaving the series unfinished. His first published comic strips were four short Future Shocks for 2000 AD in 1986–7. He wrote three graphic novels with his favorite collaborator and long-time friend Dave McKean: Violent Cases, Signal to Noise, and The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch. Impressed with his work, DC Comics hired him, and he wrote the limited series Black Orchid.^[23] Karen Berger, who later became head of DC Comics's Vertigo, read Black Orchid and offered Gaiman a job: to re-write an old character, The Sandman, but to put his own spin on him.^[2]

The Sandman tells the tale of the ageless, anthropomorphic personification of Dream that is known by many names, including Morpheus. The series began in December 1988 and concluded in March 1996: the 75 issues of the regular series, along with an illustrated prose text and a special containing seven short stories, have been collected into 12 volumes that remain in print (14 if the Death: The High Cost of Living spin-off is taken into account). Artists include Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcolm Jones III, lettering by Todd Klein, colors by Daniel Vozzo, and covers by Dave McKean.^[2]

In 1989, Gaiman published The Books of Magic (collected in 1991), a four-part mini-series that provided a tour of the mythological and magical parts of the DC Universe through a frame story about an English teenager who discovers that he is destined to be the world's greatest wizard. The miniseries was popular, and sired an ongoing series written by John Ney Rieber.

In the mid-90s, he also created a number of new characters and a setting that was to be featured in a title published by Tekno Comix. The concepts were then altered and split between three titles set in the same continuity: Lady Justice, Mr. Hero the Newmatic Man, and Teknophage.^[24] They were later featured in Phage: Shadow Death and Wheel of Worlds. Although Gaiman's name appeared prominently on all titles, he was not involved in writing of any of the above-mentioned books (though he helped plot the zero issue of Wheel of Worlds).^{[citation needed]}

Gaiman wrote a semi-autobiographical story about a boy's fascination with Michael Moorcock's anti-hero Elric of Melniboné for Ed Kramer's anthology Tales of the White Wolf. In 1996, Gaiman and Ed Kramer co-edited The Sandman: Book of Dreams. Nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the original fiction anthology featured stories and contributions by Tori Amos, Clive Barker, Gene Wolfe, Tad Williams, and others.

Asked why he likes comics more than other forms of storytelling Gaiman said “One of the joys of comics has always been the knowledge that it was, in many ways, untouched ground. It was virgin territory. When I was working on Sandman, I felt a lot of the time that I was actually picking up a machete and heading out into the jungle. I got to write in places and do things that nobody had ever done before. When I’m writing novels I’m painfully aware that I’m working in a medium that people have been writing absolutely jaw-droppingly brilliant things for, you know, three-four thousand years now. You know, you can go back. We have things like The Golden Ass. And you go, well, I don’t know that I’m as good as that and that’s two and a half thousand years old. But with comics I felt like – I can do stuff nobody has ever done. I can do stuff nobody has ever thought of. And I could and it was enormously fun.”^[25]

In 2009, Gaiman wrote a two-part Batman story for DC Comics to follow Batman R.I.P. It is titled "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" a play off of the classic Superman story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" by Alan Moore.^[26][27][28] He also contributed a twelve-page Metamorpho story drawn by Mike Allred for Wednesday Comics, a weekly newspaper-style series.^[29]

Novels[link]

Neil Gaiman at the 2007 Scream Awards

In a collaboration with author Terry Pratchett (best known for his series of Discworld novels), Gaiman's first novel Good Omens was published in 1990. In recent years Pratchett has said that while the entire novel was a collaborative effort and most of the ideas could be credited to both of them, Pratchett did a larger portion of writing and editing if for no other reason than Gaiman's scheduled involvement with Sandman.^[30]

The 1996 novelization of Gaiman's teleplay for the BBC mini-series Neverwhere was his first solo novel. The novel was released in tandem with the television series though it presents some notable differences from the television series. In 1999 first printings of his fantasy novel Stardust were released. The novel has been released both as a standard novel and in an illustrated text edition.

American Gods became one of Gaiman's best-selling and multi-award winning novels upon its release in 2001.^[31] A special 10th Anniversary edition was released, with the "author's preferred text" 12,000 words longer than the original mass-market editions. This is identical to the signed and numbered limited edition that was released by Hill House Publishers in 2003. This is also the version released by Headline, Gaiman's publisher in the UK, even before the 10th Anniversary edition. He did an extensive sold-out book tour celebrating the 10th Anniversary and promoting this edition in 2011.

In 2005, his novel Anansi Boys was released worldwide. The book deals with Anansi ('Mr. Nancy'), a supporting character in American Gods. Specifically it traces the relationship of his two sons, one semi-divine and the other an unaware Englishman of American origin, as they explore their common heritage. It debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[32]

In late 2008, Gaiman released a new children's book, The Graveyard Book. It follows the adventures of a boy named Bod after his family is murdered and he is left to be brought up by a graveyard. It is heavily influenced by Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. As of late January 2009^[update], it had been on the New York Times Bestseller children's list for fifteen weeks.^[33]

As of 2008, Gaiman has several books planned. After a tour of China, he decided to write a non-fiction book about his travels and the general mythos of China. Following that, will be a new 'adult' novel (his first since 2005's Anansi Boys). After that, another 'all-ages' book (in the same vein as Coraline and The Graveyard Book). Following that, Gaiman says that he will release another non-fiction book called The Dream Catchers.^[34] In December 2011, Gaiman announced that in January 2012 he would begin work on what is essentially, "American Gods 2."^[35]

Film and screenwriting[link]

Gaiman wrote the 1996 BBC dark fantasy television series Neverwhere. He cowrote the screenplay for the movie MirrorMask with his old friend Dave McKean for McKean to direct. In addition, he wrote the localized English language script to the anime movie Princess Mononoke, based on a translation of the Japanese script.

He cowrote the script for Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf with Roger Avary, a collaboration that has proved productive for both writers.^[36] Gaiman has expressed interest in collaborating on a film adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh.^[37]